"Environmental
imaginaries" names the contending discourses that order society around
processes of development and change. Behind public controversies over
development its subjects, objects and technologies are an array of
collectively
wrought fictions that relate people to their material surroundings. We
will be
especially attentive to solipsistic Cartesian fictions that enable the
persistent separation of culture from environment. How are these
fictions
produced enacted and materialized in such diverse sites as Appalachian
strip
mines and Sea World nature walks and permit hearings? What kind of
environmental imaginary sustains the notion that “wisdom sits in
places”? How
are alternative ways of knowing and being conjured through naming
practices
narratives and other speech genres as well as yardscapes protest
rallies and
other forms of public display? We will traverse the border between
humanities
and social sciences. How is Bakhtin’s law of placement essential for
urban
planners? Why is Bateson’s notion of the thinking system vital for
environmental writers? Moving from theories of world making multiple
realities
and aesthetic ecologies through ethnographic literature on culture and
environment and into your own experience observation and written
reflections
this seminar will explore the production of environmental imaginaries
across a
range of modern genres and practices. At stake is nothing less than
place identity
and the nature of human being.